Glover: 'Must assume London Lite will close'

Independent media columnist Stephen Glover does not give London Lite's future much of a chance now the Evening Standard is also going free.

He writes today: "Of course, I don't have the faintest idea whether this new model will work, and I wonder whether Standard executives have either. They are hoping that an upmarket free newspaper will attract more revenue than a downmarket one, and they may well be making optimistic assumptions about a recovery in advertising.
"A giveaway Standard would hardly have been feasible while Rupert Murdoch's thelondonpaper was being distributed. The recent closure of Murdoch's freesheet has given the Standard an unexpected opportunity.

"We must assume that the other surviving freesheet in the capital, London Lite, will probably also now close. It is owned by Associated Newspapers (a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust) which also owns 24.9 per cent of the London Evening Standard, having sold 75.1 per cent to Mr Lebedev. The system whereby London Lite buys editorial copy from the Standard could surely not continue with the two of them in direct competition as freesheets."